Private and public fire prevention organizations play a critical role in responding to fire hazards in the community. While they have various characteristics in common, the two organizations have some distinct differences in scope and service delivery. These differences are explored in this paper.
First, both public and private fire prevention organizations are focused on responding to fire hazards within their local areas. In most cases, both the private and public organizations collaboratively work together to combat fires of greater intensities. For instance, private fire prevention organizations teamed up with the public fire department to protect mansions from being burned down by the 2017 California wildfires (The Private Firefighters Protecting California's Mansions from Wildfires, 2020). The similarities in the functions performed by the two organizations are demonstrated when most municipal fire departments, which are public fire prevention organizations, subcontracts private fire prevention companies. When such a collaboration happens, the public organization usually employs a fire chief in charge of the operations of the private company. The fire chief acts as the link between the public organization and the private fire prevention organization. As a link between the two organizations, the fire chief supervises the private organization's fulfillment of its contractual obligation and enforces regulations about preventive fire protection. Thus, the two organizations are similar in the sense that they are both responsible for offering quality fire prevention services to the communities that they serve and can easily collaborate to enhance service delivery.
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While they share significant similarities in terms of their functions in the society, there exist some distinct differences between the way a private organization and a public fire prevention organization is run as well as their service delivery. First, most public organizations cannot offer specialized services compared to their private counterparts. The public fire prevention organizations are funded by the taxpayers' money, which implies that the more capacity of a local fire prevention department depends on the affluence of the local taxpayers. Thus, it becomes difficult for a cash-starved local fire department to offer specialized services such as fall protection rescue, confined space rescue, and response to huge and fast-spreading wildfires, which all require advanced training, skills, and proficiency. On the other hand, private organizations are motivated by profit. Also, a failure to show a great deal of competence and capability implies that a private organization is less competitive compared to its rival private company. Thus, private fire prevention organizations usually invest in an immense resource that makes them more specialized in a variety of services other than the primary role of firefighting.
Besides cost-efficiency, another significant difference between the public and private fire prevention organizations is that the performance of a public organization is measured in terms of 'value' driven in a political context. On the other hand, private organizations are only focused on improving their efficiency and corporate image to become competitive and focusing on cost efficiency to remain profitable in the market.
The final difference is in terms of health and safety consciousness where private fire prevention organizations are more health and safety-conscious than their public counterparts. Public fire departments are unregulated unless there is a state-run OSHA like the CAL/OSHA. Under the federal guidelines, state-run OSHA programs have jurisdiction over the local government and state workers. Thus, OSHA enforcements and guidelines do not apply to employees of public fire departments in states that are under the Federal OSHA program.
In summary, both private and public fire prevention organizations promote risk reduction by responding to fire hazards within society. However, the two organizations differ in terms of their efficiency of service delivery and scope of operation. For instance, public organizations must offer an additional value riven in a political context.
References
The Private Firefighters Protecting California’s Mansions from Wildfires. (2020, August 13). WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/video/the-private-firefighters-protecting-californias-mansions-from-wildfires/D3B1F835-F495-47C4-A76F-9E4DE4F4466E.html
Klinoff, R. (2019). Introduction to fire protection and emergency services . Jones & Bartlett Learning.
